She was killed, along with her unborn baby (Josiah Hawk), three other children–Ricarda Star, Sunshine Karma, and Eli Changing Sun–and her mother in an arson attack on the Duck Valley Indian Reservation[2] in northern Nevada on 12 February 1979. Her father survived the fire but was badly burned.[2]

The attack took place less than 12 hours after John Trudell had delivered a speech in front of FBI headquarters during which he burned a United States flag.